Recent Posts

The Arizona Cardinals appear to be the first team to make a
donation to a federal super PAC, which can
raise unlimited funds from individuals, unions and corporations.
There has long been a cozy relationship between sports team
owners and politicians and the Cardinals recent donation to
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer’s super PAC – JAN PAC – is proof that
these super PACs offer yet another way for wealthy NFL owners to
ensure that the political game is rigged against fans and
taxpayers.

Sports fans are often hesitant to want to mix sports and
politics. It’s the single biggest challenge in getting sports
fans organized. They see sports as an escape from politics and
don’t want to mix the two. Problem is, sports team owners have no
problem doing so. In fact, they have been doing so for decades,
which is why sports leagues in America are legal monopolies.

Back in the mid-60’s, National Football League Commissioner Pete
Rozelle lobbied Congress hard for an antitrust exemption for its
merger with the American Football League. When pro-merger
legislation ran into opposition in the House in 1966, the merger
legislation was attached to an uncontroversial tax credit bill.
One of the bill’s leading proponents was Louisiana Representative
Hale Boggs. Michael MacCambridge, author of America’s Game,
describes exactly how such a large and controversial merger was
able to gain its antitrust exemption:

Walking up the stairs of the Rotunda, when the vote looked
like a sure thing, Rozelle was his usual humble self.
“Congressman Boggs, I don’t know how I can ever thank you enough
for this. This is a terrific thing you’ve done.”

Boggs had been a veteran of Louisiana politics too long to let
such transparent politesse go unremarked. “What do you mean you
don’t know how to thank me?” he said. “New Orleans gets an
immediate franchise in the NFL.”

“I’m going to do everything I can to make that happen,” Rozelle
assured him.

At that point, Boggs stopped and turned on his heels, heading
back to the committee room, “Well, we can always call off the
vote while you – “

Rozelle took two giant strides after Boggs, turned him gently
around and said, “It’s a deal, Congressman. You’ll get your
franchise.”

Just one week later, New Orleans got its franchise. Meanwhile,
the NFL got its merger, along with language that grants the
league nonprofit tax status. That’s right, the most profitable
sports league doesn’t pay any taxes. Its head, Roger
Goodell, made $12 million last year, which is just less than
double what the head of the American Petroleum Institute made. Is
Big Football in America bigger than Big Oil? (Okay, maybe not,
but consider that all 32 NFL teams are among the top 50 most valuable sports teams in the world.)

Seattle received a franchise immediately after a Washington
Senator helped kill a bill in 1976 that would have permanently
banned television blackouts. While it’s true that Seattle had
previously been mentioned as a possible expansions city, as
Stephen Lowe points out in The Kid on the Sandlot, “it
is unbelievable that Magnuson’s deliberate efforts to stall the
antiblackout bill and Seattle’s receipt of an NFL franchise were
merely coincidental. If nothing else, the Washington senator was
returning a favor to the league.”

To this day, and perhaps more so than ever, the NFL has a big
presence in Washington. Since 2009, the NFL has racked up nearly
$5 million in lobbying expenditures. It has established a PAC of
its own – the GRIDIRON-PAC – which was already spent nearly $750,000 this cycle.

It should come as no surprise that NFL owners are overwhelmingly
Republican. (You’ll find no better example of the 1% than an NFL
owner.) Other than the Pittsburgh Steelers’ Dan Rooney, you’d be
hard pressed to find an NFL owner who leans left. (And obviously
excluding the Green Bay Packers, who are publicly owned.) In the
2008 election, NFL owners gave to John McCain over Barack Obama
at a rate of 6-1.

That said, owners tend to give to local and state candidates from
both parties fairly evenly. This is the case because owners
generally put their money behind incumbents. Owners – like many
other business owners and executives – realize that they are much
more likely to curry favor from those already in power than by
betting on the challenger. And what kind of favors are they
looking for?

Tax dollars, tax breaks and antitrust exemptions.

Professional sports in America is a glorified real estate scam that largely
depends on the public contributing huge amounts of tax dollars to
build ever bigger, ever more lavish stadiums. Economists across
the board agree that these stadiums provide little to no economic
benefit to the surrounding communities. (Think about it – if
stadiums were such a great investment, why wouldn’t owners simply
pay for them themselves?) Around the country, the public has
kicked in at least $7 billion on NFL stadiums. (Not that owners
have shown any appreciation of this when it comes to ticket
prices and television blackouts.)

In the case of Arizona, the Cardinals play in University of
Phoenix Stadium, which cost at least $455 million, 68% of which was
from the public primarily via hotel and rental car taxes.
Meanwhile, in the suburb of Glendale, the city built a lavish new
arena for the Phoenix Coyotes, and then had to pay just to keep
the team in town. Here’s how the AP framed the situation:

The city put up $25 million each of the past two years to
cover losses by the NHL and keep the team in town. Glendale
recently had a round of layoffs, along with tax hikes and service
cuts to cover a $35 million gap in the upcoming budget, so a
publicly-financed deal to keep the Coyotes — one that includes an
average of $15 million in arena operating costs — wasn’t popular
with everyone.

Worse, the city of Glendale just threw good money after bad,
agreeing to a 20-year, $325 million lease
agreement which in essence pays a new owner to run the arena the
city built. All while raising taxes and slashing social services.

It’s unclear if the Cardinals ownership, the Bidwells, have any
specific motivations in donating to Brewer’s super PAC. It always
helps to score political points with the governor for future
projects. As Think Progress’ Travis Waldron writes: “When franchises can open their
wallets to buy political friends, taxpayers will have to open
theirs even wider to pay for the luxuries the teams want.”

Brian Frederick is the Executive Director of Sports Fans
Coalition. He holds a Ph.D. in Communication and is an adjunct
professor at Georgetown University. Email him at
brian@sportsfans.org and follow him on Twitter here.